For the second straight day, a long break has won a Giro stage. Today, Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma) did the honors. The Australian soloed away from breakaway companion Rubens Bertogliati (Androni Giocattoli) in the last 10 km to take the hilly, 172-km ride from Fidanza to Marina di Carrara in 4:24:20. Bertogliati took second at 1:06, and Danilo Hondo (Lampre) outsprinted Manuel Belletti (Colnago) for third at 1:15. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) remains the maglia rosa.

For the first 30 km, the peloton stayed together. After several abortive attacks were reeled in, Lloyd and Bertogliati escaped after 45 km. Neither was a threat to the maglia rosa, and the Liquigas-led peloton let the pair go. The duo led the field by 5:48 with 57 km remaining.

Liquigas began stepping up the pace on the second of the day's three climbs, the Category 3 Spolverina. Carlos Sastre (Cervelo) punctured but got a wheel from teammate Daniel Lloyd. Three other teammates towed him back to the lead group.

With about 40 km left, Johan Tschopp (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Evgeni Petrov and Sergei Klimov (both from Katusha), Sarmiento Tunarrosa (Acqua & Sapone), and Matteo Bono (Lampre) attempted to bridge up to the leaders. None of these riders threatened Nibali's maglia rosa, so Liquigas let them go. Petrov, Tunarrosa, and Tschopp closed to within 2:00 of the leaders with 20 km left.

On the day's final climb, the Category 3 Bedizzano, Lloyd attacked Bertogliati. The Australian led the Swiss by 0:20 at the summit. Lloyd descended conservatively but accelerated away from Bertogliati on the run to the finish. The lead group overtook the chase group in the closing km.

In the overall, Nibali leads teammates Ivan Basso and Valerio Agnoli by 0:13 and 0:20, respectively. Stage 7 will be a challenging stage that might produce a change of race leadership. The 222-km ride from Carrara to Montalcino will feature two 10-km stretches of strade bianche, the region's famous dusty white roads, in the last 40 km. The second stretch ends only eight km from the finish. Who will fight his way to the finish first? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out and watch Giro d'Italia video highlights in our video section!